Wales taking nothing for granted

Rhys Jones cuts loose against Papua New Guinea during a pool game last weekend in Australia.

Wales head coach Paul John is taking nothing for granted in this weekend's Hong Kong leg of the IRB Sevens World Series.

John guided his side to a morale-boosting quarter-final spot last weekend in the Australian leg in Adelaide before the surprise package of the tournament, USA, won a keenly contested match with the last move of the encounter to knock out Wales.

In this weekend's sixth leg of the series, Wales find themselves in the same pool as Japan, Hong Kong and England who are still smarting after being stunned by USA last week in pool play. The shock result saw England fail to make it out of their pool and as a consequence they have slipped further down the pecking order on the overall points table.

While most pundits would point to the clash against England as the key encounter in Pool E, John is refusing to look that far ahead.

"The game against England will only be the key game if we have won the two before that. We aren't even thinking about England to be honest with you. We've got Japan on the first day and they are improving all the time in every tournament then we've got a very difficult game against Hong Kong.

"That could be a real potential banana skin as they always perform well in their home tournament so we can't even look at England until we have won the other two games. We were taught a lesson last weekend against America. If you under estimate anyone they come and bite you on the backside. We were taught a lesson last week," he added.

Wales are currently in a top position in the overall standings with 24 points with usual suspects New Zealand and Samoa leading the charge with 96 and 94 points respectively.

"We've 24 points which is how many points we had for the whole of the series last year," said John. "We've won a couple of Bowls and made a couple of quarter-finals. We had eight new boys in the first tournament of the season in Dubai. It's been a learning process but the boys are getting better and better. Unfortunately it's the nature of the game that there are going to be some ups and downs."

The Wales squad met back up this morning to prepare for the clash against England - WRU TV caught up with Neil Jenkins who said the squad were under no illusions for their next task but a trip to Twickenham doesn't hold any fears for a confident Wales side.

Wales hooker Ken Owens was delighted to get the NatWest 6 Nations off to a flying start with a convincing win against Scotland, where he says the squad were determined to deliver a performance 'from minute one.'

Welsh referee Nigel Owens will create history in the opening round of the NatWest 6 Nations clash at Stade de France where France face Ireland, when he surpasses the previous record of 17 Six Nations matches held by Alain Rolland and Jonathan Kaplan, as WRU TV's Graeme Gillespie discovers

Just two days until the NatWest 6 Nations kicks off. George North takes WRU TV around the players area at Principality Stadium after going through security - which fans will have to do on Saturday. Gates open at 11.15 - don't leave it late!

Next in the series of #TheTeamRoom we listen in to the first leadership group in camp. The players were asked to nominate their peers who they wanted to represent them on the group and we hear what Warren and the players have to say.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland was in a positive frame of mind at today's NatWest 6 Nations launch but admitted the opening clash in Cardiff was a 'massive' game as everyone is talking about the rise of Scotland.